WINNIE THE POOH – The Review

Hand-drawn animation, lovable characters, and a timeless story all make WINNIE THE POOH a must see in the theaters!

All is well in the Hundred Acre Wood. Winnie the Pooh is in search of honey. There is no honey left in his house and his tummy will not stop grumbling at him until Pooh finds some. While on his quest he finds Eeyore, who seems more down than normal. Turns out that his tail has gone missing. They gather up the gang and hold a contest to see who can find Eeyore a new tail. While out and about, searching for tails and such, Pooh finds a note from Christopher Robin that says “Gone out. Busy. Back soon.” and brings it to Owl to read. See, there isn’t a lot of reading going on in the Hundred Acre Wood, and Owl is the smartest of them all. Of course, this isn’t exactly Owl’s strong-suit either, and now they are all convinced that Christopher Robin has been kidnapped by some sort of monster called the “Backson”. What started out as a normal day has now become a quest… for honey, Eeyore’s tail, and  to rescue Christopher Robin from the “Backson”.

I cannot express to you how much I enjoyed this film. I, of course, have to start out with the fact that they went back to hand-drawn animation. WINNIE THE POOH doesn’t need 3D, crazy effects, or a CGI makeover. One of the biggest appeals to the story of Pooh is that it is classic. Timeless even. Animating it by hand and being able to see the individual drawing marks move gave the film, and the characters in it, the warmth that they deserve. Plus, I have always been a fan of classic, hand drawn animation. Sure, I have some CG animation favorites, but they don’t have the same feel as the hand drawn films.

Jim Cummings, as the voices of both Winnie The Pooh and Tigger, was simply phenomenal! Cummings took on the voice of Pooh after Sterling Holloway, the original voice, retired. He later took on the voice of Tigger when Paul Winchell, also the original voice, retired. There is a reason that he (Cummings) has been chosen to take on not one, but two legendary Winnie The Pooh characters… he is unbelievably talented! He really brings both characters to life, giving them a sense of warmth and charisma. His work in this film is nothing short of amazing!

Another impressive voice actor, Tom Kenny, who joins the “Poohniverse” (Hey! It’s his word, not mine!) by lending his voice to Rabbit, following Junius Matthews, the original voice, Will Ryan, and Ken Sansom, who was the voice of Rabbit for the longest run. Kenny is very talented in his voice-over work. There are very few voice actors that have the ability to disguise their voice so the character really comes to life.

MELISSA RANT: Today, most films cast big named actors who sound like themselves. I can’t tell you how many times I have been pulled out of a movie because I recognized who was doing the voice. Once this happens, it’s hard to focus on just the character. There are very few exceptions. One is listed below.

Kenny, like Cummings, has the ability to throw themselves into their work, and can convince the viewer that their character is real. When you watch (or, as I should say… hear) their work, you aren’t thinking about who is doing the voice. You aren’t even thinking about the fact that someone IS voicing the animation. Like magic, they add to the illusion. Simply AWAZING! (For those of you that don’t have your Melissa Vernacular Handbooks at the ready, that is a AWESOME and AMAZING combined. It’s a Melissa “super word”!)

Craig Ferguson is an exception to my rant above. He is perfect as the wise, yet opinionated voice of Owl. His quick-witted sense of humor matches up rather nicely with the (self-declared) smartest creature in the Hundred Acre Wood.

The thing that I appreciate, more than anything, about this film is that they didn’t try to update it, or make it modern. There is one modern moment in the film (you will know it when you see it), but it only lasts a few minutes. There are no cell phones in the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh doesn’t need to be made to have more edge. They kept to the classic origins for the story, as well as the characters, and I couldn’t be more pleased. There are some things that just do not need to be reinvented or remade by Hollywood. Sure, they made sure that there was a little more humor in it than its predecessors, but it stuck to the clean, good-natured spirit of the original tales like honey in Pooh’s tummy.

I think that they were extremely smart with the telling of this tale. There are three different stories going on, so that it keeps the attention of little ones, people with ADHD, that one random guy in the theater that can never stay awake (but still feels the need to spend his money on movie tickets) etc. Now, I have heard a few people complain that it is too short in length, but I disagree. Too often, movies are made to be entirely too long and end up dragging on because they feel like a movie has to hit a certain length in order to be taken seriously. This is false! Stop wasting my time with drawn out, boring scenes. This film tells it’s tale, tells it well, and cuts out at around the 70  minute mark (with the credits). I didn’t feel like I missed something, or that they left something out. I was more than pleased with their use of time.

Zooey Deschanel adds to the timeless tale as a bit of a “musical narrator”. She lends her voice to the soundtrack, which includes  the original “Winnie the Pooh” Theme song, as well as as “So Long”, which she wrote with fellow She & Him cohort M. Ward. She has a folk-y, classic tone to her voice that really meshs well with this film. Plus, the songs are fun! I really enjoyed (“A Very Important Thing To Do”.) I don’t think they could have picked a better person to take on the songs for this film.

So, long story short… WINNIE THE POOH will melt your heart!

OVERALL RATING: 5 out of 5 stars